I'm happy to report that I'm finally in a possession of a GR for the test and review! I'm now a part of GR Ambassador program, which means I'm supposed to take some photos and put together my thoughts about the GR. Then I will join the existing number of GR ambassadors at special GR site: http://gr.pentax.eu I will do my best to put together some nice photos and stay as objective as possible in my review

The first test I did after receiving the camera, and after setting it according my taste, was something I was quite curious about since the GR announcement. Will the GR works with the "ancient" GT-1 tele extension lens, originally developed for GRDI and II? As you may remember, I found the GT-1 lens practically useless with the GRD III and IV. The main reason was its brighter f1.9 lens and wider lens barrel. True, the GR lens barrel is even wider, however, it's also much shorter and the lens lowest f number is now 2.8. And these changes in GR design put me in a hope of a possible GT-1 reborn.

Because I don't have the GH-3 adapter yet, all I could do so far is a quick hand-held test. But even this unscientific test says that the GR+GT-1 looks promising! Although the GR+GT-1 combo will never win a corner sharpness contest, the center sharpness seems to be great. I would never use this combo for landscape photography, but it may be great addition for portraits? Stay tuned for a proper shots with GH-3 and comparison of 28mm, in-camera cropped 35mm mode and 40mm GT-1 test!

These are unmodified photos taken with GR + handheld GT-1:

R0000260_sm.jpg (334.96 KiB) Viewed 9014 times

EXIF-Data

Image taken on: Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:56 am

Focus length: 18.3 mm

Shutter speed: 1/125 Sec

F-number: F/4

ISO speed rating: 400

Whitebalance: Manual

Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Camera-model: GR

Exposure program: Not defined

Exposure bias: -3/10 EV

Metering mode: Center-weighted average

R0000261_sm.jpg (343.21 KiB) Viewed 9022 times

EXIF-Data

Image taken on: Sun Sep 29, 2013 7:58 am

Focus length: 18.3 mm

Shutter speed: 1/200 Sec

F-number: F/4

ISO speed rating: 400

Whitebalance: Manual

Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Camera-model: GR

Exposure program: Not defined

Exposure bias: -3/10 EV

Metering mode: Center-weighted average

R0000267_sm.jpg (539.59 KiB) Viewed 9048 times

EXIF-Data

Image taken on: Sun Sep 29, 2013 8:01 am

Focus length: 18.3 mm

Shutter speed: 1/200 Sec

F-number: F/4

ISO speed rating: 400

Whitebalance: Manual

Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Camera-model: GR

Exposure program: Not defined

Exposure bias: -3/10 EV

Metering mode: Center-weighted average

R0000272_sm.jpg (540.64 KiB) Viewed 9014 times

EXIF-Data

Image taken on: Sun Sep 29, 2013 8:05 am

Focus length: 18.3 mm

Shutter speed: 1/200 Sec

F-number: F/3.5

ISO speed rating: 800

Whitebalance: Manual

Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Camera-model: GR

Exposure program: Not defined

Exposure bias: -3/10 EV

Metering mode: Center-weighted average

Below shots show a real edge sharpness of GR+GT-1 combo and comparison with native 28mm and 35mm crop mode. Once again, these shots were taken by landholding the GT-1 in front of the GR lens, so they are not very scientific and precise example how the sharpness may look with GT-1 attached on GH-3.

EDITED 4.11.2013:The GH-3 finally arrived and over the weekend I got a short chance to take some photos. As I've expected, the GH-3 did not improve the corner/edge sharpness degradation. In addition, the combination of GH-3 and step-down ring made the vignetting noticeably worse. Apparently, during the handheld test, I was able to hold the GT-1 at much closer instance to the GR lens, which effectively eliminated vignetting. On a positive side, the GT-1 seems to be still somewhat useful for portraits with a lot of blurred background around the photographed subject, where the corner/edge softness and vignetting could be effectively masked out. Here are some new photos taken with GR + GT-1 using GH-3. For full res photos (and some more) photos check this flick set:http://www.flickr.com/photos/odklizec/s ... 045019106/

Sounds interesting (not that I have a GR - yet). Will the GT-1 fit directly on to the GH-3 or will it need a steo-up? Anyway, I think the portraits look great and I hope it does work out as I liked my GT-1 on the GRD & GRD2.

Richard, yes, a step-down ring (49 to 37mm) is required to be able to connect the GH-3 with GT-1. The edge sharpness is not good, but this additional blurriness may be helpful in case of portrait shots? So far, I found the GT-1 quite usable with the GR. I hope it will be the same also with the GH-3

Rog, at some point, I tried the GT-1 also with A12-28 but because of the availability of A12-50, I found that combo less than useful. When I will receive the GH-3, I may eventually do the A12-28/GR comparison (with and without the GT-1).

Pavel, I look forward to the comparison, although I know the new GR has a superior sensor. What I did find was that the GT1 added to my A12-28 was a lot less expensive than adding the A12-50 to my collection. The macro would be nice, but I have a GX200 for that.

I'm not sure what you mean by "less than useful". The images I get have good corner to corner sharpness, and of course, more reach for candid portraits. It does make the combo heavy though, and for my web work, a 40mm equivalent crop is usually fine. I admit I use it a lot less now I have the A16. It takes less time to swap the lensors than it does to screw on the GT1. So if anyone want to make me an offer for it, it would be good to see it get some use on a nice new GR.

The centers in your samples look great IMO.Its hard to tell though about corners as they are out of focus areas in your above samples.Perhaps a test with the newspaper on the wall to tell more. Stopping down may help.

Thanks for your comments guys. I will do a separate GR/GXR A12-28 comparison.

I've added some landscape shots, taken with GR+GT-1, to better show you the fuzzy edges A full resolution shots are available at flickr. As you can see, aside the fuzzy edges, there is no trace of black corners. But it may be that I just held the lens too close the the GR lens? The corners may look much worse when using step-down ring and GH-3?

As I see it, the GT-1 looks as a great "effect and portrait" solution for GR. If one learns how to "hide" the edge fuzziness (by correct composition), it may produce great portraits. It's definitely not a solution for landscapes